Helge Arnulf Tverberg (March 6, 1935December 28, 2020) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

. He was a professor in the Mathematics Department at the

University of Bergen The University of Bergen ( no, Universitetet i Bergen, ) is a research-intensive state university located in Bergen, Norway. As of 2019, the university has over 4,000 employees and 18,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 194 ...

, his speciality being

combinatorics Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and an end in obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many appl ...

; he retired at the mandatory age of seventy. He was born in

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

. He took the

cand.real. Candidatus realium or candidata realium (abbreviated cand. real.) is a former academic degree used in Norway, and conferred in mathematics and natural sciences. It was abolished in 1985. There was originally no set duration for the completion of th ...

degree at the University of Bergen in 1958, and the dr.philos. degree in 1968. He was a lecturer from 1958 to 1971 and professor from 1971 to his retirement in 2005. He was a visiting scholar at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

in 1966 and at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...

, in Canberra, from 1980 to 1981, 1987 to 1988 and in 2004. He was a member of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Univer ...

. Tverberg, in 1965, proved a result on intersection patterns of partitions of point configurations that has come to be known as Tverberg's partition theorem. It inaugurated a new branch of

combinatorial geometry Discrete geometry and combinatorial geometry are branches of geometry that study combinatorial properties and constructive methods of discrete geometric objects. Most questions in discrete geometry involve finite or discrete sets of basic geome ...

, with many variations and applications. An account by

Günter M. Ziegler Günter Matthias Ziegler (born 19 May 1963) is a German mathematician who has been serving as president of the Free University of Berlin since 2018. Ziegler is known for his research in discrete mathematics and geometry, and particularly on the ...

of Tverberg's work in this direction appeared in the issue of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society for April, 2011.

References

1935 births 2020 deaths 20th-century Norwegian mathematicians Combinatorialists Academic staff of the University of Bergen University of Bergen alumni Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Scientists from Bergen {{Europe-mathematician-stub

See also

References